[math4] Excellent article on helping children excel in learning.

[Kathy Pusztavari]

Gary: "P.S. Mechanisms for 'awards' could hook into services like Moodle,
the Journal, or via collaboration (so perhaps a shared Write session would
show awards gained by the collaborators). Having a view to show all Activity
Awards would also be a good driver (could be an activity, or ideally at some
point part of Journal). The general idea for awards drifts in from the
gaming environment, where awards are used to increase re-playability and
tempt folks to try some other possible path." 

Yes, tracking "awards" is great.  If kept as data, it can eventually plug
into a grading system.

I just want to include what is called logarithmic data taking based on Ogden
Lindlsey's line of research called Precision Teaching.  It is perfect for
computer application because the charts are a pain to plot manually.  Kids
actually get into it and see how they are learning and compare to what their
goal is on the chart.  These are usually 1 minute timed items that are
charted.  In some cases when you are "shaping" a new learned item, the
student may need to be on a 15 second or 30 second timing and build up to 1
minute (or 2 for durability).  Each day/timing would become a data point on
the logarithmic chart, the top with # correct, the bottom with # incorrect.
For precision teaching, you need to get errors to 0 or you have to look at
teaching method (or programming issues), timing, difficulty, a whole host of
issues.

We used something like this for learning math facts.  My 4th graders used a
rocket to show how many math facts they were getting.  For each 1 minute
timing that they passed (40 math facts in 1 minute), they would fill in the
rocket starting at the bottom.  Mastered facts got rolled over to the next
new math fact which they would then practice and take the 1 minute timing.

Reinforcements (or what you call rewards) are well documented with both
animals and humans.  It is scary powerful when done correctly.  This is
where something learned can stick with a kid forever if taught well with
correct shaping and reinforcement schedule.

Normally when you teach a new concept and you put the students on a thick
reinforcement schedule (give praise every time they get it right, no praise
if they get it wrong).  Later, as they get the concept you reward on a
variable schedule, every 2nd time, every 4th, every 3rd.  This is proven to
be the most effective reinforcement schedule in the long run because they
don't know when it is coming.  Just think of pulling the lever on a slot
machine - why do people waste their money on slots?

-Kathy
-----Original Message-----
From: fourthgrademath-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:fourthgrademath-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Gary C
Martin
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 3:32 PM
To: Karlie Robinson; David Van Assche
Cc: FourthGradeMath at lists.sugarlabs.org
Subject: Re: [math4] Excellent article on helping children excel in
learning.

On 5 Jun 2009, at 13:51, Karlie Robinson wrote:

> I hope a few of you can take a little time to read the article below.
>
> The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids -- New York Magazine 
> (thanks to Quaid for the link) http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
>
> Why am I suggesting it? Well it has a lot of good background on what 
> motivates children to excel at life.
>
> The article discusses the common "Positive Self-Esteem" theories that, 
> as the article argues, are ineffective and even cause children to do 
> less with their talents as a result of receiving positive feedback.
>
> Obviously I can't do a 5 page article justice in this email, but what 
> I learned from the article is that it's not helpful to simply say 
> "good job" when a child does well. It's more important to show that 
> their success is a direct result of their effort.
>
> "When we praise children for their intelligence," Dweck wrote in her 
> study summary, "we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look 
> smart, don't risk making mistakes." (taken from first paragraph on 
> page 2)
>
> So perhaps we should think of ways we can encourage effort in the 
> activities we create? I know this may not be possible, since some 
> games just aren't designed to do much more than play through right 
> now, in any case it's probably a good thing to keep in mind as we go.

Disclaimer: I have no kids and am not a teacher; but yes to more praise for
_effort_, and not specific successes. At least that's my understanding :-)

FWIW, David Van Assche raised some interesting Activity ideas at SugarCamp
Paris and I'm interested/active in getting us to at lease 'demo' state in
the Sugar 0.86 release timeframe. The idea is to focus on an 'awards'
mechanism/style to encourage exploration and provide
(sometimes) unexpected rewards. Idea is that Activity authors can define a
range of badges/medals/icons for certain behaviours/ accomplishment in an
attempt to get students to dig deeper (mix of 'easter eggs' and specific
goals). It's mainly Activity side work (a demo activity to start with) but
perhaps could find a home in the Journal (through an ability of Activity to
set some private entry tag and for Journal to display that in a user
appealing graphical form).

Even for something as hard to measure as the Write Activity, there could be
'awards' (hidden or hinted at) for things like "found 10 or more
collaborators for one document", "gained at least 100 words each from 5 or
more collaborators", "wrote more than 1,000 words", "you used the word
entomology!". The idea is many would be hidden ("surprise, you did something
cool!") and that some initial more obvious and visible 'awards' would hint
that others were there for discovery.

Regards,
--Gary

P.S. Mechanisms for 'awards' could hook into services like Moodle, the
Journal, or via collaboration (so perhaps a shared Write session would show
awards gained by the collaborators). Having a view to show all Activity
Awards would also be a good driver (could be an activity, or ideally at some
point part of Journal). The general idea for awards drifts in from the
gaming environment, where awards are used to increase re-playability and
tempt folks to try some other possible path.

> ~Karlie
> _______________________________________________
> FourthGradeMath mailing list
> FourthGradeMath at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/fourthgrademath

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